MADRID, Spain.- Antonio Bachiller y Morales, considered the father of bibliography in Cuba, was born on June 7, 1812 in Havana.
Among his various studies during his youth, it stands out having graduated in Canon Law, Civil Law and Logic, Metaphysics and Moral at the University of Havana.
He worked as a teacher of Religion and Natural Law at the San Carlos Seminary. He was appointed corresponding member of the Academy of Antiquarians of Northern Europe in 1845, and later member of merit of the Anthropological Society of Cuba.
From 1863 he was professor of Political Economy at the Secondary Education Institute of Havana, where he became director. He also served as dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Havana.
He investigated the history of America before the colonization of Spain and as a result published, among others, american antiques Y primitive Cuba.
Some of his writings constitute contributions to studies related to trafficking, free trade and the problems of agriculture in the country.
He participated in the university reform of 1842 and in 1869 he wrote a document asking for autonomy for Cubans as the only means to end the Ten Years’ War.
In 1869 he was present at the events of the Villanueva Theater and the Café del Louvre, in Havana. The reprisals unleashed against him by the Spanish authorities led him to emigrate that same year, along with his family, to New York.
During his years in the United States he collaborated with various newspapers such as the new world Y America Illustrated. And in Cuba he was editor of The Literary Pointer, the Critical magazine of sciences, arts and literature, El Nuevo Regañón de la Habana Y Havana Journalamong others.
In 1878 he returned to Havana, where he would die on January 10, 1889.
José Martí referred to him as a “Cuban gentleman, passionate American, exemplary chronicler, expert philologist, famous archaeologist, assiduous philosopher, kind teacher, fair lawyer, diligent writer and pride of Cuba.”
Every June 7, the date of his birth, Librarian’s Day is celebrated in Cuba.
Bachiller and Morales Contributions to the Bibliography
His work Notes for the history of Letters and Public Instruction on the Island of Cuba (1861), it is a fundamental contribution to the study of the Hispano-American bibliography, to the knowledge of Cuban publications up to 1840 and to the analysis of the progress achieved by civilization in Cuba.
He saved and ordered the capitular acts of the Havana Cabildo. His bibliographic collection currently constitutes one of the most valuable holdings of the José Martí National Library.
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